After deliberating for 11 hours and 32 minutes, a jury unanimously found Darbyshire guilty of murder.

"If it was an animal then you would stop its suffering, but when it comes to a member of your own species you want to prolong the suffering as long as possible."

Claire Darbyshire

Prosecutor Jonathan Rees QC told jurors that Darbyshire accepted killing the former Ford motor company stock controller but claimed it was part of a "suicide pact".

He told jurors: "In essence, she asserts that they had come to this agreement because his life had become intolerable due to multiple sclerosis and she would have nothing to live for once her father had gone."

However, he told jurors that Mr Darbyshire had never expressed any suicidal thoughts before or complained about being in pain to nurses who visited him.

The widower had developed MS in 1995 and over the years his condition worsened so he became bedridden. In 2014, Darbyshire took over as his sole carer.

Medical records revealed he had episodes of "bad temper and aggression" but had never tried to kill himself, Mr Rees said.

The defendant was born Christopher but changed her name to Claire by deed poll in 2008 and has lived as a woman for many years, Mr Rees said.

Following her arrest, Darbyshire told police that she had planned to hand herself in the next day and a signed account was found among her belongings.

In a prepared statement to police, she said her father had "got to the stage where he couldn't stand the misery of his life and the indignity of it any more".

Her defence lawyer, Paul Keleher QC, argued that her actions amounted to assisting a suicide rather than committing an unlawful killing.

Darbyshire, who is pre-operative transgender, was forced to spend five months on remand in a men's prison awaiting trial. During earlier hearings, she had appeared visibly shaken and upset at HMP Belmarsh.

In finding Darbyshire guilty of murder, the jury rejected the lesser offences of manslaughter or assisting a suicide.

The defendant made no reaction as the verdict was delivered, while family members left court in tears.

The Recorder of London, Nicholas Hilliard QC, adjourned sentencing to a date to be fixed and asked for a prison report, saying he wanted to understand the impact of custody "in the particular circumstances".